But instead of opening to the cheery or at least adequate light of a standard turbolift lobby, it opened into almost total darkness.
"How come it's so dark?" Luke asked.
"Probably because there aren't any lights," Mara told him, looking around as she got a grip on the edge of the opening and pulled herself up and through. Strangely, even most of the permlights that should have been in the area seemed to be out. "We may have been wrong about this being the main living area. Wait a second," she added, peering down the corridor. "I can see some lights way aft. Maybe everybody's back there."
"Or maybe they're not," a voice came from the darkness to her right. "Just stay where you are."
Mara turned toward the sound—
And flinched back as the beam of a glow rod blazed to life in her face.
She reacted instantly, dropping and throwing herself to her left in a flat half roll that brought her back up into a squatting position with her lightsaber ready in her hand. The man with the glow rod tried to track the beam to her motion, but the half roll fooled him and the beam overshot her. For a fraction of a second she was able to see past the light to the shadowy figure behind it, and to the weapon he was holding in his other hand.
First things first. Reaching out with the Force, she got a grip on the weapon and twisted its muzzle away from her.
To her surprise, instead of fighting against the push as most people instinctively did, the figure continued rolling his hand in the same direction, rotating at wrist and elbow and twisting out of her Force grip as he would have from a normal combat wrist lock. He swung the arm back around in a tight circle, and was bringing it back to bear when the glow rod beam came back to her face. "I said stay put," he snapped.
"Nice move," Mara complimented him, shielding her eyes from the light. This time, she recognized the voice. "Guardian Pressor, I presume?"
"Put down the lightsaber," Pressor ordered. "Then move away—"
He broke off with a gasp of pain, his glow rod twisting wildly in his grip and coming to rest pointed at the ceiling. Mara blinked away the last remnants of the sparkles in her eyes in time to see his blaster wrench itself out of his hand and go flying toward the turbolift. "Sorry," Luke apologized, pulling himself the rest of the way out of the shaft and catching the weapon in his outstretched hand. "But I don't think we've got time for a debate. Something's gone wrong up here."
"Obviously," Pressor growled, rubbing his wrist. "What did you do to the power?"
"It wasn't us," Mara said. "All we did was ungimmick the car you left us in—"
She broke off as a beep came from her belt. "The jamming seems to be stopped, too," she added, pulling out her comlink and touching the switch.
"—ara—Commander Fel," Jinzler's voice came urgently. "Emergency!"
"We're here," Mara said, throwing a sharp look at Luke. There were panicky voices and the sounds of serious commotion in the background. "Report."
"We're in the council meeting chamber," Jinzler said, clearly fighting to keep his voice steady. "Bearsh has us trapped by those wolvkils of theirs—"
"Wait a minute," Luke said into his own comlink. "The wolvkils? What wolvkils?"
"The ones they've been wearing everywhere," Jinzler ground out. "They weren't dead, just in some kind of suspended animation—very slick, very advanced. And they're not Geroons, either. They're Vagaari."
Pressor hissed something under his breath. "Vagaari?"
There was a muffled crash from the background. "What's happening?" Luke asked.
"The wolvkils are trying to get to us," Jinzler said. "We've got them blocked, but I don't know how much longer we can keep them out."
Mara looked at Pressor. "Which way?"
"There," Pressor said, pointing back toward the lighted area Mara had spotted earlier.
"Show us," Luke told Pressor, handing him back his blaster. "Jinzler? We're on our way."
"Watch out for Bearsh and the others," Jinzler warned as they followed Pressor down the corridor. "They left all the wolvkils in here with us, but they've got some nasty-looking stinging insects they use for personal protection. They might have other weapons, too."
"Got it," Luke said. "Any idea where they were heading?"
"They just said they'd be wandering around," Jinzler said. "It seems they also brought a supply of line creepers."
"Terrific," Luke muttered, glancing into a darkened doorway as they passed. "Fel? You there?"
"Right here, Luke," Fel's voice came promptly. "We caught the gist. What do you want us to do?"
"We're on D-Five," Luke said. "Where are you?"
"D-Six, about midway back along the starboard corridor," Fel told him. "You want us to head back to the turbolifts and join you up there?"
"The forward group isn't working," Luke told him. "From the way the lights and power have gone out, I'd say Bearsh has been here already with his line creepers. Guardian, are the aft turbolifts operational?"
"They should be," Pressor said. "I've got everything locked down between Four and Five, but from Six up to here they should still work."
"You copy that?" Luke called.
"Copy," Fel confirmed. "General Drask's calling the Chaf Envoy for the rest of his warriors. If we hurry, maybe we can catch Bearsh and his friends in a pincer."
"Except that Pressor's locked down all the turbolifts from D-Four," Mara interjected. "That was what you said, wasn't it?"
"It was," Pressor confirmed, punching keys on his own comlink. "Maybe I'd better confirm that was actually done. Trilli?"
Someone answered in a voice too quiet for Mara to hear. Pressor lowered his own voice, half turning away and speaking rapidly as he brought the person on the other end up to date.
Luke caught Mara's eye. "What do you think?" he asked.
"We don't have time to be creative," Mara said. "Not with Jinzler and the others under attack. Straight in is about all we've got to work with."
"Agreed," Luke said. "Unless we want to layer the attack, with us leading the charge and the Five-Oh-First, the Chiss, and Pressor's Peacekeepers coming in backup waves."
"We may not have any choice on the layering part," Mara pointed out. They'd reached a section of the ship where most of the permlights were functioning, she noted, as well as the majority of the regular lights. The line creepers must not have gotten a stranglehold on this area yet. "The Chiss in particular are going to have to gear up from stage zero. Who knows how long that'll take?"
"Let's find out," Luke said, lifting the comlink to his lips again. "Fel, did you hear the question?"
"Yes, but it appears to be a moot point," Fel said grimly. "Drask can't make contact with the ship. No answer, on any channel, from anyone."
Mara looked at Luke, her heart suddenly tight in her chest. He was staring back at her, a haunted expression on his face. The flurry of deaths they'd both sensed while they were down on D-l...
"Luke?"
"Yes, we heard," Luke said. "Better get your team up here on the double. There's a good chance they may already have taken out the Chaf Envoy."
"Understood," Fel said grimly. "We're on our way."
Luke clicked off the comlink. "Guardian?"
"Looks like you can scratch most of our help, too," Pressor said darkly as he jammed his comlink back onto his belt. "Six of my Peacekeepers are missing."
"Six out of how many?" Mara asked.
Pressor snorted gently. "Eleven, including me. We weren't exactly a serious fighting force to begin with." He waved his blaster. "But they were here the whole time, either in the turbolift or with my people. When could any of them have slipped away, either back to your ship or to hit my men?"
"The key is that they weren't all here," Luke told him. "We had to leave one of them behind."
"Because of injuries sustained in a mysterious sneak attack," Mara added sourly. "What do you think, Luke? They shot Estosh themselves?"